Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2010-08-03
Astrophysical Journal Letters 719 (2010) L194-L198
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters
Scientific paper
We report the discovery of multi-scale X-ray jets from the accreting neutron star X-ray binary, Circinus X-1. The bipolar outflows show wide opening angles and are spatially coincident with the radio jets seen in new high-resolution radio images of the region. The morphology of the emission regions suggests that the jets from Circinus X-1 are running into a terminal shock with the interstellar medium, as is seen in powerful radio galaxies. This and other observations indicate that the jets have a wide opening angle, suggesting that the jets are either not very well collimated or precessing. We interpret the spectra from the shocks as cooled synchrotron emission and derive a cooling age of approximately 1600 yr. This allows us to constrain the jet power to be between 3e35 erg/s and 2e37 erg/s, making this one of a few microquasars with a direct measurement of its jet power and the only known microquasar that exhibits stationary large-scale X-ray emission.
Brandt Wiliam N.
Calvelo D. E.
Casella Piergiorgio
Fender Rob P.
Heinz Sebastian
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